Montreal's underworld in turmoil as mobster's son gunned
down
Tu Thanh Ha and Anna Mehler Paperny
Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2009
Montreal's underworld is facing troubled times after its dominant
Mafia family, already undermined by arrests and rivals, was
struck Monday by the targeted daylight killing of the eldest
son of its godfather.
The gangland shooting of Nicolo Rizzuto Jr., 42, came as his
father, Vito, is in a U.S. prison, the clan's top leaders are
also behind bars, and the 85-year-old family patriarch is living
under tight probation restrictions.
In the three decades since they rose to power, the Rizzuto
family had never been hit so closely within its secretive inner
circle.
Observers say gang violence may be linked to a dozen Montreal
cafés and bars, mostly Italian-run, that recently were
hit by firebombs. Police wiretaps in recent years showed that
supporters of the Rizzutos felt they were under siege, their
authority challenged by other crime syndicates, their captains
fearfully ordering armoured cars and setting up firearms caches.
Police fear a chain-reaction of retaliations and counter-retaliations
in the wake of the shooting. But what comes next will also test
just how powerful and organized the weakened Rituzzo clan remains.
"It's like a tsunami for the Montreal underworld - the
eldest son of Vito was shot to death," said Mafia expert
Antonio Nicaso. "Whoever's behind this murder definitely
took advantage of a particularly weak moment of the Rizutto
crime family."
Nicolo Jr. had been standing next to a black Mercedes, near
the offices of an associate, construction entrepreneur Tony
Magi, when a gunman fired at him four to six times, hitting
him in the upper body. He died in hospital.
His business partner, Mr. Magi, had himself been the target
of an assassination attempt last year, a shooting which, observers
said, demonstrated that being an acquaintance of the Rizzutos
no longer granted one much immunity.
Speculation so far is that the challenge came from street gangs
- the same groups Vito Rizzuto was known for co-operating with
diplomatically - taking advantage of a splintered clan that
lately has been less co-operative with outside elements.
Vito Rizzuto, 63, used to be called the Teflon Don because
he repeatedly escaped the authorities' attempts to convict him
in major drug-trafficking cases.
But his organization has repeatedly been undercut in recent
years.
Mr. Rizzuto was arrested in 2004 and is now serving a 10-year
sentence in Colorado for his role in the killing of three renegade
members of the Bonanno family in Brooklyn.
His top captains, including the man identified in wiretaps
as the interim godfather, Francesco Arcadi, were convicted on
various charges last year, after a major RCMP crackdown, Operation
Colisée.
The sole remaining senior figure, Vito's father, 85-year-old
Nicolo Sr., is on probation after spending two years in detention
for collecting proceeds of crime.
All this created a "personnel problem" for the family,
said author Julian Sher, an organized-crime expert.
"The Rizzuto clan was unable to replace those people but
most of all Vito Rizzuto - a very powerful and charismatic boss.
Their clan, in this particular moment, are more disorganized
crime than a powerful organization," Mr. Nicaso said. "They're
headless - without a boss. ... This murder took place in the
weakest moment of the Rizzuto family."
The turmoil is coming as Montreal's street gangs have grabbed
more turf in the street-level drug trade, exploiting the vacuum
left by the collapse of biker gangs in the past decade.
Witnesses to Monday's noontime slaying of Nicolo Jr. told police
they heard several shots, as many as six, before seeing a man
fleeing the scene on foot. Videos from cameras located on a
building in the vicinity of the shooting may become a key element
in helping police identify the assassin.
"I think this is a challenge from someone outside, because
I can't think of a person that, now, within the mafia of Montreal,
is willing to challenge Rizzutos," Mr. Nicaso said.
"[Vito Rizzuto] was the architect of a consortium, a strategic
alliance between criminals of different backgrounds in Montreal
in the 1980s - he was a kind of a mediator."
Mr. Sher remembers seeing Nicolo Jr. in court during hearings
into Vito Rizzuto's extradition in 2004 and 2005 - a confident,
younger version of his father and grandfather.
"You could see the kind of brash confidence that comes
from being a prince of the mafia - the sense of being untouchable.
And who knew then that his dad was going to go down for racketeering
charges?"
In an interview earlier this year with the Gazette, Mr. Magi
said he and Nicolo Jr. were involved in real estate.
"We had bought a piece of land together which we are developing,"
he said of Nicolo Jr. "He's studied law and he's a smart
kid. He's smart in real estate.
"The poor guy. He tries to do something in his life and,
because of his family's past history, every time he turns around
he gets hit with something."
In the same interview, Mr. Magi denied police allegations that
his construction firm was linked to extortion schemes and said
he did not know why he had been targeted in a shooting last
year.
Nicolo Jr. was one of three children of Vito Rizzuto. His siblings,
Leonardo and Bettina, are lawyers and both work for the family's
long-time attorney, Loris Cavaliere.
Aside from Leonardo, 40, and Bettina, 36, occasionally attending
court appearances of their father, the three siblings kept a
low profile.
Nicolo Jr. had a record for minor offences such as traffic
violations.
However, his unusual family setting was reflected for example
in the fact that, according to a Montreal police court affidavit,
Nicolo Jr. was married to Eleonora Ragusa, daughter of Emmanuel
Ragusa, an associate of Vito Rizzuto with a record for drug
trafficking and money laundering.
Their 1995 wedding was staked out by picture-snapping Mounties
and Laval police officers, who noted the presence among the
guests of mobsters with criminal records such as Mr. Arcadi
or Agostino Cuntrera.
But the clan scion was never seen to have taken on his father's
leading role, Mr. Nicaso said.
"Nick was not seen as a potential successor of Vito. ...
For sure, he was not directly in line. [However] people knew
that he was the son of Vito Rizzuto."
